Method for manufacturing a garment having a rigid front portion and a stretchable back portion

ABSTRACT

A method for making jeans. A material is weaved for use as a front portion of the jeans. The warp portion of the weave is spun with a combination of open-end and ring spinning. The weft portion of the weave is spun with open-end spinning. The resulting weaved material is then sulfur dyed, singed and pre-shrunk to form the front portion. Another material is weaved for use as a back portion of the jeans using a fabric composition which is 79% cotton, 20% filament fiber polyester, 1% spandex. The warp portion of the weave is spun using a combination of open-end and ring spinning. The weft portion of the weave is made from the filament fiber polyester. The resulting fabric composition weaved material is then indigo dyed and singed and then pre-shrunk to form the back portion. The two portions are cut and sewed together to produce the jeans.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Denim is a sturdy cotton warp-faced twill textile in which the weftpasses under two or more warp threads. This twill weaving produces thefamiliar diagonal ribbing of the denim that distinguishes it from cottonduck.

It is a characteristic of most indigo denim that only the warp threadsare dyed, whereas the weft threads remain plain white. As a result ofthe warp-faced twill weaving, one side of the textile then shows theblue warp threads and the other side shows the white weft threads. Thisis why blue jeans are white on the inside. The indigo dyeing process, inwhich the core of the warp threads remains white, creates denim's fadingcharacteristics, which are unique compared to other textiles.

After being made into an article of clothing, as part of themanufacturing process, most denim articles are washed to make themsofter and to reduce or eliminate shrinkage (which could cause thearticle to not fit properly after its owner washes it). In addition tobeing washed, “washed denim” is sometimes artificially distressed toproduce a “worn” look. Much of the appeal of artificially distresseddenim is that it resembles dry denim which has faded. In jeans made fromdry denim, such fading is obtained as a result of the jeans being wornby a person by the activities of his or her daily life. This processcreates what many enthusiasts feel to be a more “natural” look than thelook of artificially distressed denim.

Most dry denim is made with 100% cotton and comes from several differentcountries. In particular USA, Zimbabwe and Japan are popular sources ofcotton for making raw denim. Some prefer the denim of one country toanother for its purported durability, fades, and feel. Dry denim alsovaries in weight, typically measured in by the weight of a yard of denimin ounces. 12 Oz. or less is considered light denim, 12 Oz. to 16 Oz. isconsidered mid-weight, and over 16 Oz. is considered heavy weight.Heavier denim is much more rigid and resistant to wear. Jeans having abroken in look with vintage characteristics such as destruction (thewear and tear of threads), natural worn in whiskers at the crotch area(created by bending over and over) and the fading down of the naturaldeep dark indigo, has been a popular trend for many years. This worn inlook is created by the natural wear and tear of raw denim that fades anddestructs in time.

In the early 60's spandex was invented and resulted in a stretch yarnthat could be woven into the mix of cotton yarn to create what arereferred to as stretch denims. Stretch denim revolutionized the denimindustry by enabling the manufacture of tight fitting jeans that weresoft and comfortable. However, the stretch yarn used does not destructand provide the desired vintage, worn in look.

As a result, it has not been possible to produce jeans which paired thecharacteristics of being able to produce the worn look with a stretch,tight fitting jean. Although combining a rigid jean material with astretch jean material is not in and of itself a problem, manufacturershave determined that it is not possible to make such a combined productdue to the different shrinkage factors of the two fabrics when combinedin one garment. Rigid denim has a much different shrinkage percentagethan the stretch denim. The different shrinkage percentages results inpuckering of the sides where the two different materials are attachedwhich is not an acceptable result.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In order to address the problem in the prior art, a specific blend offibers and different size yarns is needed to overcome this problem, thatis, jeans need to be manufactured using a using a rigid fabric front anda stretch fabric back while maintaining the same character and shrinkagefactors for both. In this connection, according to the invention, arigid fabric using 100% cotton yarn for the front is used to match thefabric used for the back of the jeans while maintaining the samecharacter and shrinkage factors. The 100% cotton yarn is blended with afilament fiber polyester and a small amount of spandex all in the samesize yarn to keep the shrinkage consistent between the front and theback. In this manner the front of the jeans can be stressed to provide aworn look while the back of the jeans made of the stretch materialproduces a tight, but comfortable fit without any puckering at the seamswhere the two materials are sewn together.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The invented jeans are a combination having a front portion made of arigid jean material and a back portion made of a stretch jean material.However, in order to obtain a finished product where the two portionshave the same character and shrinkage factors, a specific combination ofyarns used to make the two portions is necessary. The rigid front of thegarment is composed of a denim fabric made as follows:

A. The fabric composition is 100% cotton;

B. The weave construction has a yarn count of 10+10RSB*10;

C. The warp portion of the weave is spun with a combination of open-endspinning and ring spinning with a thread count of 28 threads/cm;

D. The weft portion of the weave is spun with open-end spinning with athread count 20 threads/cm;

E. The resulting cotton fibers are sulfur dyed; and

F. The constructed weave goes through a singeing process to obtain auniform and smooth fabric surface, then is pre-shrunk.

The stretch back of the garment is composed of a denim fabric made asfollows:

A. The fabric composition is 79% cotton, 20% filament fiber polyester,1% spandex;

B. The weave construction has a yarn count of 10+9RSB*150 D/40 D+150D/40 D 83*60;

C. The warp portion of the weave is spun using a combination of open-endspinning and ring spinning with a thread count of 33 threads/cm;

D. The weft portion of the weave is made from the filament fiberpolyester. There are two types of polyester yarn, filament and spun. Inan embodiment, a filament yarn that combines enough fibers to obtain atensile strength of 176.3 lbf (pounds per force) is used. The threadcount of the filament yarn is 23.6 threads/cm. In another embodiment,the filament fiber polyester is spun using a spinneret;

E. The fibers are indigo dyed; and

F. The constructed weave goes through a singeing process to obtain auniform and smooth fabric surface, and then is pre-shrunk.

After the front and back portions are obtained, the two materials arecut and sewn together in a manner well known in the art to produce pairof jeans. Pockets, a zipper or zippers and buttons can be added usingwell known prior art techniques to obtain a finished product.

I claim:
 1. A method for making jeans comprising: a) weaving a materialfor use as a front portion of said jeans using 100% cotton to obtain aweave construction having a predetermined yarn count, wherein the warpportion of the weave is spun with a combination of open-end spinning andring spinning with a predetermined thread count, and the weft portion ofthe weave is spun with open-end spinning with a predetermined threadcount; b) sulfur dyeing the resulting cotton fiber weaved material; c)singeing the sulfur dyed weaved material to obtain a uniform and smoothfabric surface; d) pre-shrinking the sulfur dyed weaved material aftersaid singeing to form a front portion; e) weaving a material for use asa back portion of said jeans using a fabric composition which is 79%cotton, 20% filament fiber polyester, 1% spandex to obtain a weaveconstruction having a predetermined yarn count, wherein the warp portionof the weave is spun using a combination of open-end spinning and ringspinning with a predetermined thread count, and the weft portion of theweave is made from the filament fiber polyester with a predeterminedthread count; f) indigo dyeing the resulting fabric composition weavedmaterial; g) singeing the indigo dyed weaved material to obtain auniform and smooth fabric surface; h) pre-shrinking the indigo dyedweaved material after said singeing to form a back portion; i) cuttingsaid front portion and said back portion and sewing said cut frontportion and back portion together to produce said jeans.
 2. The methoddefined by claim 1 wherein the predetermined yarn count of the frontportion is 10+10RSB*10.
 3. The method defined by claim 1 wherein thepredetermined yarn count of the back portion is 10+9RSB*150 D/40 D+150D/40 D 83*60.
 4. The method defined by claim 1 wherein the predeterminedthread count of the warp portion of the weave of the front portion is 28threads/cm.
 5. The method defined by claim 1 wherein the predeterminedthread count of the weft portion of the weave of the front portion is 20threads/cm.
 6. The method defined by claim 1 wherein the predeterminedthread count of the warp portion of the weave of the back portion is 33threads/cm.
 7. The method defined by claim 1 wherein the predeterminedthread count of the filament fiber polyester of the back portion is 23.6threads/cm.